With the arrival of the U.S. basketball millionaires, the Games have turned a final corner. Shamateurism is gone. But will glitz and hype now prevail?

Call them the In-Your-Face Games. That is what they will feel like to the Angolans, Venezuelans or whoever else has the misfortune to be standing on the Olympic basketball court as Michael Jordan spins, slides and flies by on his way to the hoop. The show put on by the U.S. team will be spectacular but one- sided. But that's what happens when one team can assemble the finest basketball talent ever to strut the Olympic floorboards.

Players who face the Americans will not be the only ones experiencing a revelation: fans will too. The old-style Games, in which a collection...